Movies

Dialog from North by Northwest:

Eve: Men like you!
Roger: What’s wrong with men like me?
Eve: They don’t believe in marriage.
Roger: I’ve been married twice.
Eve: See what I mean?

Over the weekend I rewatched North by Northwest. It had been quite a while since I had seen it and last time was on an old style TV with 4:3 aspect ratio. I’ve been rewatching all of Hitchcock’s films and was surprised to find that this movie could not be gotten from Netflix’s DVD service. So I bought the Blu-Ray version.

I remembered some of the plot of mistaken identity and the UN along with the iconic cornfield scene. But watching the Blu-Ray version on a decent-sized TV was like watching a totally new movie. It just made being able to see all his shot choices in their full glory. Most of the dialog was excellent and the part quoted above made me pause the movie to jot it down. Although the sexually suggestive parts of the dialog certainly pushed his increasing battles with the Hays code at the time.

Oh and Hitchcock’s story idea sprung from the idea of Cary Grant hiding in Lincoln’s nose and it took years to put a plot around it.

Over the years there has been a continued meme of calling Die Hard a Christmas movie. This is mostly done as a jest, but people watching this on or near Christmas is a thing. I have joined in on this trend just because it is funny to put the film in this genre.

There are lighthearted and more serious discussions in social media over this question.

Recently I saw Matthew Archbold’s post on 7 Reasons Die Hard is NOT a Christmas Movie. In this piece he mocks the arguments put forth to class it as a Christmas movie – all in good humor.

What was missing from his post is what is the definition of a Christmas Movie in the first place. Probably because such a definition would be difficult to craft. I think there are multiple genres in what people consider belonging to this.

Now I am no film critic or have an encyclopedia knowledge regarding movies. Not even an amateur film buff. So caveats aside let me wrestle with this.

First off at a top level narrow definition of a Christmas Movie would be actually about the Incarnation of Christ involving his birth. So a movie like The Nativity Story fits that narrow definition. Maybe even the reading of Luke in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Probably not a lot of movies that fit this definition.

Our celebration of the Nativity is all about the joy of our redeemer coming to us. That we are sinners desperately in need of a redeemer. There is no Pelagian pick ourselves up by our bootstraps. Even sins we think we have overcome by sheer willpower were actually powered by grace. Still nothing we could do could merit eternal life participating in Gods own life.

So a movie regarding our knowledge of sin and our need for a savior would thematically participate in what Christmas is truly about. In Incarnation shows God’s great love for us. There are a lot of movies with themes of redemption, but less tying this directly to our redeemer. Plus salvation history is large story arc beyond the Nativity of Christ.

The really large block of so-called Christmas movies usually have two things in common.

1. Events occurring around or on Christmas.
2. The driving message that “Family is important”.

So in this large block you get everything from the masterpiece It’s a Wonderful Life to all the movies that show up on the Hallmark Channel and other venues. They have an element of disassociation with family, friends, and the world in general. Selfishness or despair. By the end they learn something about themselves that lets them more fully enter family or community. Most involve a more secular redemption while others have shadows of a more religious theme connected to grace and redemption.

Most of my favorite movies that are more fully Christmas movies are movies like It’s a Wonderful Life or some version of A Christmas Carol. It is interesting the thematic connections these two stories share. They both involve a looking back at life and what you have done. For Scrooge this was a negative experience as he lived a life of selfishness. George lived a life of self-giving and a review of his past revealed to him more fully the connection to others to help get passed his despair. George is like “Bob” Cratchit and Potter is like Scrooge. A Scrooge with no redemption. There is a religious dimension to both stories, but more haunted than explicit.

So these specific films and others like them are fully Christmas films despite not having the full connection to the birth of Christ and our need of a savior. Besides nobody argues about whether these examples are Christmas movies.

When we move on the largest part of so-called Christmas films they all have points 1. and 2. I listed. The large majority are rather smarmy and have little real depth, yet still contain the truth that ties to family and community are important. That reaching out of our selves to serve others is primary.

Now I happen to like a lot of these Hallmark style films for what they are. Still I don’t really categorize them as fully Christmas films. For myself I call this genre Christmassy films.

Another large category of so-called Christmas films is Santa Clause related ones. These also almost always involve the “Family/Friends are important” theme. So I see these as a subgenre to Christmassy films.

So when it comes to Die Hard this is not a Christmas movie. It does have connections to the Christmassy genre. If you took out the family aspects it would have been a lesser film. His estrangement from his wife and coming back to bring about a reconciliation provided some of the tension in the film and a catalyst for the action. So Die Hard is roughly 95% an action flick and 5% a Christmassy flick.

So I was watching Season 4, Episode 4 of Longmire and heard this being said:

“My brother would have been a good man if there was somebody there to shoot him every moment of his life.”

So either that line was a homage to Flannery O’Connor or just a blatant rip off.

In her story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” at the end of the story is the semi-famous line:

“She would of been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

Either way certainly Flannery O’Connor influenced.

As for the show Longmire itself. It is one of those shows I found interesting, but one that also slowly developed. The story arc has spanned the four seasons so far and with a plot arc pay off early in season 4. This show is very character driven where dialog does not fill all screen time. Slowly developing camera shots and seeing the wheels of the mind think on the problem to be solved. No doubt not for everyone, but I like long story arcs and solid season ending cliffhangers. I also like the misdirection where the seeming suspect is almost always not the actual wrongdoer. Even when you have gotten the flow of this device as used in the show I found myself falling for it most times. So either this is craftily done or I am just easily duped.

I totally agree with Dale Price’s review of this new television show which he titles “A completely impartial TV program review.”

For the moment, I’m going to completely bracket the fact that NBC’s Revolution is a blatant, soulless rip-off of my friend Steve Stirling’s Emberverse series. Instead, I’m going to give it an objective analysis, focusing on the strengths and flaws of the series, as based upon my viewing of the first two episodes.

Just read his whole review which is much more insightful than anything I can really add.

Dale introduced me to this series of books that started with “Dies the Fire” and has progressed through the years.  I really love when a cool idea is taken to the logical conclusions and displays great storytelling as this series does.  My first reaction when I first heard of the story was pretty much the same as anybody aware of the Emberverse series that the idea was ripped-off.  Though the problem with the series goes beyond this in that if you are going to go ahead and rip off an idea then don’t screw it up by not ripping off enough of it.  In “Dies the Fire” the consequence of electricity just stopping to work along with chemical reactions such as gunpowder was put forth in a totally believable way once you accept the premise.  It was believable because of the way the characters reacted and how they formed social groups to fend off starvation.  Revolution has taken a great premise and chops it down to more B-Movie storytelling with plot holes galore.

Back in 2006 the show Jericho told the story of a town in the aftermath of a nuclear war.  There was a believability about the characters and story of the first season that is just lacking in Revolution. I just can’t see the future that is painted after such a massive die-off of the human race.  Placed 15 years into the future you just get no real idea about the collapse as if it only happened in some suburban neighborhood or two.

…And only one reference to religion? I’m left with the distinct impression of the Apocalypse According to Aaron Sorkin–and no, that’s not a good thing.

One of the things I enjoy about the Emberverse series is that religion is not just left out or just added in at times like an afterthought.  The surviving groups coalesce around leaders and some form of religion – which is quite varied in this series.

…Overall, I can see why people would watch it, but only if you don’t think too hard about it.

Do yourself a favor and pick up the books instead.  Though this advice rarely fails in general.

Given that Blessed Miquel Pro is the Patron Saint of my Blog I am quite interested in this movie on the Christeros.

This history blog has an excellent post of the history of this period in Mexico.

I am really looking forward to seeing the Movie “Of Gods and Men” when it comes out on Blu-Ray eventually. I have read nothing but rave reviews from both Christian and secular reviewers and Steven Greydanus at DecentFilms.com gives it his highest rating.

In addition the people behind what I thought was the best movie on Fatima called “The 13th Day” have released a documentary on Fatima. Some were not fans of the “The 13th Day” since it didn’t perfectly follow the events of Fatima, well this documentary should make a find companion to it.

In the midst of this of course we also have Showtime’s 8-week series on one of the Popes. Since it is Showtime out of 265 popes you knew it would be about Rodrigo Borgia – Pope Alexander VI the most notorious pope in history. Not to mention the Borgia family – though the family later produced Saint Francis Borgia. I can’t fault Showtime for picking such an interesting piece of history, it would be nice for a little balance considering how many Popes were saints and martyrs and the equally rich history surrounding them.

Ever since I was introduced to Steven Greydanus’s Decent Films.com some years ago it has become my favorite source for a serious Catholic view on films. He doesn’t have time to review everything, but when he does a review it is very well crafted and full of insights. They can range from the hilarious story he tells in his review of “Catch me if you can” to his classic review of “Horton Hears a Who” entirely in Suessian verse.

His latest effort with 30 second films review displays his talent in an unexspected way.

A companion documentary from the people who created the movie “The 13th Day”

I figured Jumper was going to be a crappy movie, I just didn’t know how crappy. What do you do with a book that has a Muslim terrorists as a bad buy? John C. Wright who liked the book, but hated the movie writes:

AH! But these illuminati are the Magisterium! They are the Opus Dei! You heard me. The Christians are the bad guys. Their motive for killing teleporters is that "Old God should Have the Power to Be in All Places At Once". Boy, that is so stupid it makes my head ache. Teleporters go from place to place, they are not in all places at once, and God does not teleport.

These guys are not Jews or even Evil Buddhists. They are called Paladins— yes, you heard me. The band of knights in service to Charlemagne who saved Europe from the Muslim hordes of Spain and North Africa are just the people the film makers thought it would be creepy to name their bad guys after. They are the same people (according to one character in the film) who were responsible for the Inquisition.

Whatever, film maker dude. Good thing you did not have the Muslim terrorist in the book as the villain, or that might have offended someone.

So with films like the Da Vinci Code, Golden Compass, and now Jumper it looks like Catholics are now the villains of choice and for Hollywood the Chosen people. It reminds me of the great line in Fiddler on the Roof "We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?"

John C. Wright has a thorough review of just how bad this movie is on multiple levels.

I posted on this before and it looks like good news.

The Archdiocese of St. Paul/Minneapolis has banned an 82-year-old “cradle
Catholic” and his daughter from speaking at a Catholic parish.

Robert and Carol Curoe, co-authors of the recently released book Are There Closets
in Heaven? A Catholic Father and Lesbian Daughter Share Their Story, were to
speak Monday at St. Frances Cabrini Church in an event organized by the Catholic
Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) and Catholic Rainbow Parents.

Yet according to Michael Bayly, executive coordinator of CPCSM, the church was
informed that due to “the number and intensity” of calls and e-mails
received by the Archdiocese opposing the event, it could not be held on church
property.